Why I'll be a solo founder next time • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#51

Post by choxi » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

ghc wrote: post #34

If you're not good at building a founding team, how will you excel at building a company? Technology and design are great, but companies are the people that they are comprised of. There's nothing wrong with being a solo founder because being one doesn't mean you can't build a good team. But you obviously have issues with team building, so I'd work on that first or found a company with someone who is actually good at…

Recruiting employees requires different skills from recruiting cofounders. They have different incentives, different roles, and it happens at different stages in your company.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#52

Post by beat » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:40 PM UTC

wikiburner wrote: post #18

I just figured I'd throw this out there to see if anyone has any insight on it: Do you think certain personality types are probably better off being solo founders? Maybe loners, or people who aren't people persons. Or maybe ADHD types who have trouble keeping relationships on an even keel? Or maybe the Steve Jobs egomaniac, force-of-will types (although, I know he started w/ a co-founder). Obviously, it could depend…

I dunno. I'm very much a people person, but I'm going as a solo founder because I haven't found the right partner. My biggest problem isn't skills (I can both hustle and hack), it's bandwidth.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#53

Post by mathattack » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:41 PM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #3

Interesting points, but a lot of it is contradictory to the advice you hear from successful startups, so I'd take this with a grain of salt. "I believe that my previous two ventures failed mainly because of the founding team (which I’m included in). How do I know? Because companies with almost identical products and value propositions succeeded afterwards. " I'm not sure if you're drawing the correct lesson there. So…

Adding to what Ryan said, when the time is right for an idea, there are usually multiple competitors out there. 2 is a small sample size to generalize off of. But... There may be other reasons.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#54

Post by regal » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:43 PM UTC

hnal943 wrote: post #19

j45 wrote: post #2

A partnership is more work and harder than marriage because you have to: - get on and stay on the same page - agree on both of your live's direction and commitment to a path has to be the same for the next 2-3 years - have the ability to defer to each other in your area of competence - have to be skilled at learning and getting anything done, whether its business or tech. - know that your entry and exit goals have to…

Almost all of these things apply to marriage as well, minus the bits about exit strategy. If you think committing to the same direction for 2-3 years is difficult, it's not time to get married yet!

Very often, the marriages where partners never considered nor discussed potential exit strategies should things not work out are the very same ones that, just like with the business partnerships where this is neglected, end up taking messy detours through the legal system on the way out.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#55

Post by ghc » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

choxi wrote: post #51

ghc wrote: post #34

If you're not good at building a founding team, how will you excel at building a company? Technology and design are great, but companies are the people that they are comprised of. There's nothing wrong with being a solo founder because being one doesn't mean you can't build a good team. But you obviously have issues with team building, so I'd work on that first or found a company with someone who is actually good at…

Recruiting employees requires different skills from recruiting cofounders. They have different incentives, different roles, and it happens at different stages in your company.

Recruiting is an entirely separate issue. Building a team begins where recruiting ends.

In this talent market (in Boston in my case) we have a difficult time with recruiting, but our experiences with team building have been far more painful (as growing pains go).

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#56

Post by woggg » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:48 PM UTC

"This is one of the reasons why young people often make for particularly good founders. They don’t have a lot of other commitments."

Bleah. It's a balance of ability, interest, commitment, urgency and experience. Interest and commitment are not the same thing and neither is urgency. Experience does have value.

You limit yourself pretty badly if you follow this youth principle. Finding a twenty-something willing to bang his/her head for 80 hours a week is about the least useful thing a startup can do.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#57

Post by nlh » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:48 PM UTC

I'm sorry to sound pithy here, but it sounds like the lesson here isn't "be a solo founder", it's "build the right team."

Either way, this is an interesting perspective - thank you for sharing your experience!

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#58

Post by trustfundbaby » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:51 PM UTC

dennybritz wrote: post #37

mcfunley wrote: post #33

You will be a solo founder next time because anyone who Googles you will realize you are the kind of moron who throws his former cofounders under the bus.

Sorry if it came across like that. I myself was one of guys who wasn't committed enough in a previous startup.

You don't have to be sorry, I thought it was clear you weren't throwing anyone under the bus.

You're also quite the bigger person, I make it a rule not to respond to people who feel the need to use a clear insult like "moron" in addressing someone they don't know, especially here on HN. There was simply no need for that kind of disrespectful language

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#59

Post by rodolphoarruda » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 4:52 PM UTC

In my own experience, item #1 is by far the most critical of all reasons listed. It's big enough to have pages and more pages written solely about it. I was the technical lead of an "educational platform" being developed and most of its products. As soon as two of the co-founders - out of 5 - found themselves jobs and other full time activities things started to go downhill very fast. One of the most annoying behaviors those then absent co-founders started to display was a sense of: "Why are you asking me that? Isn't this [feature/decision/scope] too obvious for you?". Hey, it's not a matter of being obvious or not; but still current or valid according to project's timeframe. I can't even elaborate on the amount of energy we lost.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#60

Post by DanielBMarkham » Mon, Aug 05, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

I spent a few months a few years ago looking for a good cofounder.

Let me tell you, it was a waste of time. The odds of running into somebody where everything initially meshes are astronomical. And you're already facing long odds as a startup, why add to the stress with all that other stuff? Failure to co-locate alone is a show-stopper, much less issues about flipping versus growing, or financing versus bootstrapping, or where your real passion is, or whether passion alone is enough...

I'm glad it works for so many successful folks, although I note that many times these are college buddies who have spent a lot of time together before their startup.

This is one of those things that looks different depending on where you sit. If you're an investor, teams do better than solo founders. If you're a founder who's worked alone for many years, my conclusion was don't kill yourself trying to find a partner that probably isn't there. This is much the same as my conclusion on Venture Capital: some things are not worth chasing.